![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/parlor-games1.jpg\" "\\"parlor")
<\/a>What fun. Maryka Biaggio has presented us with a thoroughly entertaining novel, whether you read it yourself or have it read to you as an audio book.<\/p>\nShe starts with a fascinating character who was a historically real person, yet a mystery. May Dugas was a beautiful adventuress who was branded \u201cthe most dangerous woman in the world\u201d by the Pinkerton Agency, one of whose detectives pursued her around the world. Was she a heartless, scheming gold-digger, or just a girl who\u2019d grown up poor and was using what resources she had to make her way in the world \u2013 hoping to find love along the way?<\/p>\n
Biaggio, a psychologist by profession, brilliantly gets inside May\u2019s head and heart not by overtly analyzing her, but by giving her voice. May tells her own story in two interwoven threads \u2013 the story of her life, which really swings into high gear when, still a teenager, she leaves her home on Michigan\u2019s Upper Peninsula in 1887 to seek her fortune in Chicago; and the story of her trial back in her hometown in 1917, when she\u2019s about to turn 48. May stands accused in a civil suit of having defrauded a longtime woman friend of thousands of dollars. \u201cYou be the judge,\u201d May challenges the reader in the opening chapter, and as her astonishing story unfolds, we find ourselves pondering more than just the charges in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
To travel with May is to get a fascinating tour of the world in the Gilded Age and on into the days of World War I. When she doesn\u2019t find the immediate success and riches she had envisioned in Chicago, May takes refuge in a high-class bordello, where she learns more about the ways of the wealthy.\u00a0 She uses her newfound financial security to work her way into society on her evenings off, and before long she\u2019s engaged to a suitable young man. That\u2019s the first of many times that her nemesis, the Pinkerton detective, thwarts her plans.<\/p>\n
Often just one step ahead of disaster, May makes her way to Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Shanghai; Hong Kong, Tokyo; London; the Netherlands; Mexico City, and other stops in between. Men are usually involved, more often than not wealthy men. Eventually, she marries a wealthy Dutch baron, earning a title for herself.<\/p>\n
She schemes to increase her personal wealth, dallies with other men, fancies herself an accomplished business woman and skirts the law when doing so serves her purposes. Her beauty and quick wits bring her much of the wealth, jewels, fine clothes and high society she enjoys \u2013 until, inevitably, the well runs dry.<\/p>\n
Traveling with May also affords an intriguing look into her psyche. Partly because of qualms of conscience, but more because of fears of retribution and penury, May at times tries to stick to the straight, narrow and respectable. But something always intervenes, and whenever she\u2019s embroiled in questionable dealings, her Pinkerton foe has a way of showing up. If you\u2019ve ever wondered how apparent scoundrels justify themselves to themselves, you\u2019ll find that this novel offers a credible answer.<\/p>\n
By book\u2019s end, the reader has plenty of information on which to judge her. The surprising thing is that you\u2019re likely to find that whatever you think about her actions, you\u2019ll find that the indomitable May Dugas has aroused your sympathy, and even your grudging admiration.<\/p>\n
This fast-moving, well-written, richly detailed book is entertaining whether you read it yourself or listen to recorded version. It\u2019s an especially good choice for an audio book because it\u2019s told in May\u2019s own voice, and the accomplished Leslie Carroll brings that voice vividly to life.<\/p>\n
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A historical novel based on a real character, a rollicking tale of adventures across four continents, and a heroine who\u2019s as charming as she is incorrigible \u2013 there\u2019s a lot to like in this highly entertaining first novel by a psychologist whose first writing credentials were earned in scholarly publications. By Linda C. Brinson PARLOR […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[101,388,387,389],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical-fiction","tag-historical-fiction-2","tag-maryka-biaggio","tag-may-dugas","tag-the-gilded-age"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1009,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/1009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}